Cliff House Alpacas

Spring Throw Finished!

Posted on June 7, 2013 by cliffhousealpacas

Kirstin here with an update on that blanket I was working on. I think it’s finally finished, and just in time. It’s supposed to be in the 90s next week. Crocheting an alpaca blanket in that weather, in my NOT air conditioned house, would be terrible.

Even though each of the strips came out a different length, sometimes as much as 3 or 4 inches, it doesn’t show (much) in the finished product. As usual, I’m ambivalent about how it turned it out. The yarn is very soft, but it doesn’t have any memory. It’s…floppy? Droopy. Kind of…fwahh. You can tell by looking edges of the blanket. They are a bit longer than the middle, even though I deliberately put the shorter strips on the outside.

It’s beautiful, but I may try different yarn next time I make a blanket.

Posted in fiber art | Tagged alpaca yarn, blanket, crochet, crocheted blanket, crocheting | 5 Comments

Near the Mississippi with the Caribbean on my Mind

Posted on June 5, 2013 by cliffhousemom

Surf’s up”

Aunt Geri here. A recent trip to Illinois provided a lot of rainy days (8 out of 10) and some fragmented knitting time for me. With the great Mississippi river being close to flood level, it was only appropriate that I knit this aquamarine colored shape-shifter scarf. It is an alpaca blend yarn in a gorgeous tonal blue that looks like a Caribbean tidal pool.

“Finally……”

I have had plans for this scarf ever since I spun the “Pyrites of the Caribbean” yarn almost a year ago! It was one of my first wheel yarns and is still one of my favorites. The classy color comes from black alpaca blended with a beautiful gold silk. About 18″ of each end is beaded with pyrite colored glass beads and the scarf is knit as a tube on a circular needle.

Posted in Fashion | Tagged alpaca fiber, knitting | 3 Comments

What took us So Long, it Wasn’t that Hard

Posted on June 3, 2013 by cliffhousemom

Sitting in our home office for the past six weeks were eight bags of skirted seconds. These seconds were destined for Ingrid’s Hand-Woven Rugs in Paint Rock, Texas.

May be it was the fact that we had to ship 36lbs. of fiber out of state using the United States Postal Service, or maybe it was the fact that we’ve never stuffed loads of hair into boxes we had to buy and then make-up. You know the trick is in getting all of the air out of the bags so that you only pay for the hair and not the air.

After two boxes, Gordon proclaimed the trick was to push the hair into the box, and not to squeeze the sack to get rid of the air. In the end, seven 1.3 cu. ft. boxes were needed to ship 36 lbs. of Alpaca seconds. So what was the big deal? No idea, we’re thinking in four months we should have some lovely Alpaca area rugs for sale. We’ll let you know.

Posted in fiber art | Tagged alpaca fiber, fiber | 2 Comments

The long and short of it…….

Posted on May 31, 2013 by cliffhousemom

On a visit to the mill, we discovered some cashmere roving, fiber that has been washed and put through the carding machine, which Cliff House purchased. Aunt Geri here, what went through our heads, Jani’s, (Momma) and mine was, when will we ever see cashmere roving this in-expensive again? Wouldn’t it be beautiful to marl it into some alpaca fiber?!

The finished yarn resting on one ounce balls of Alpaca roving

The decision to pair it with some black extra-fine alpaca was easy. The spinning process – not so much – because I was combining two completely different fibers and textures.

Each strand is three ply

There are 2 main spinning techniques – a long draft (woolen method) and a short draft (worsted method). I generally use a worsted or short draw technique since I spin alpaca into thin singles. The cashmere requires a long draft, so I modified my spinning into a method somewhere in between – “semi-worsted”. This is difficult because you must allow the twist to enter the drafting zone – exactly what we have trained ourselves NOT to do!

Finished skein of “Bunny Tracks” ready for sale (Momma says NFS, mine, mine, mine)

The end result is a rich, very soft, I wish everyone could touch this blend of alpaca and cashmere, 3-ply yarn.

Posted in fiber art, how-tos | Tagged alpaca fiber, alpaca yarn, fiber, handspinning, handspun yarn, marled yarn, roving, spinning | Leave a comment

Marcello loses his Harem, but he gains his Man Card

Posted on May 29, 2013 by cliffhousemom

After shearing, I become concerned with Tulip’s body score. Momma here, with all of Tulip’s blanket gone, it was very apparent she was under weight.

“What a lazy day.”

It was time for Marcello to gain his “Man Card”. If Tulip had one less mouth to compete with for food, she would gain weight. The obvious choice was to remove Marcello and ask him to join the boys. I caught Mikayla yawning, and all of the other girls were pretty mellow, so Jared and I opened the gate and let Marcello out in the turn out with the boys before anybody noticed he was gone. Marcello didn’t even know he was gone!

“How did I get out with the boys?”

There are only five girls, so I put them in the boy’s paddock because it’s smaller, and then I put the boys in the larger north paddock. To the girls it was a big non-event, the view had changed, they noticed they were closer to the horses.

“I don’t remember the horses being so close.”

The boys were pretty sure Marcello was not allowed in their paddock, wait, did the paddock suddenly get bigger?

“Did our paddock get bigger?”

All that Tulip and I care about is the sudden abundance of hay for her, and wait just a minute, she’s got her own feed tub, too.

Posted in animals | Tagged alpacas, ranch life | Leave a comment

Strip Tease

Posted on May 24, 2013 by cliffhousealpacas

Kirstin here! Any other crocheters notice that their stitch gauge is completely different from day to day? Even using the same hook, yarn, and pattern, I might end up with a piece that’s two inches longer than the one I made yesterday. Come to think of it, my handwriting is just as bipolar. Anyone else? There are probably meds I can take for it. Or at least to make me stop worrying about it.

This picture was not posed. Everything in my house is neatly lined up, even half-finished projects. *chirp chirp*

ANYHOW, I really notice this particular deficiency when I’m working on a blanket done in strips. I’m almost done with this one, the generically named “Spring Throw”. I suppose marketing (aka Momma) might object if I rename it “Strip Tease” though. 😉

Anyone else suddenly craving peach sorbet? Feel like riding a unicorn through a field of poppies?

Obviously I used yarn in natural colors, rather than their garish candy-coated combination. I’m working with a I (5.5 mm) hook, and it’s coming out slightly narrow but the correct length. It calls for 9 strips, but I may make a couple more to get the right width.

I’ve mentioned before that I tend to be a “perfectionist” (read: slightly obsessive compulsive. “Slightly” also in quotes). I think I love crocheting, knitting, and spinning because they are creative hobbies that suit my personality. I can’t see how counting brush strokes would help an artist, but it certainly helps if a crocheter counts their stitches!

Posted in fiber art | Tagged alpaca yarn, blanket, creative hobbies, crochet, crocheted blanket, crocheting, obsessive compulsive disorder, OCD, stitch gauge | 1 Comment

Happy Colors

Posted on May 22, 2013 by cliffhousemom

Aunt Geri here; a recent marketing journey by Jan (Momma) led to a purchase of some beautiful alpaca yarn blended with angora rabbit. A local artist blends her hand-raised angora rabbit’s fiber with pure white alpaca. She then hand-dyes the fiber with bright, happy colors.

Jan envisioned the yarn being used for Baby Pom hats and Toasty Toes baby booties and here they are. Very soft, bright,and happy! ++ Momma here, Aunt Geri you’re the best!

Posted in Fashion | Tagged alpaca fiber, hats | Leave a comment

Shearing Movies

Posted on May 21, 2013 by cliffhousemom

As promised yesterday, we thought you might enjoy our amateur video attempt showing Scott shearing Morocco. He has our best fiber, and you should be able to see the nice staple length.

Kirstin does the skirting afterward. The lady you see helping her, is her grandmother Bonnie. We forgot to thank her for all of her hard work. She was visiting us for Mother’s day and stayed for shearing. What a trooper.

Posted in animals | Tagged alpaca fiber, ranch life, shearing | 2 Comments

After we Shear we Skirt

Posted on May 20, 2013 by cliffhousemom

This shearing was Vannie’s first with our family at Cliff House, his behavior and his fleece were one of our best surprises of the day. When he arrived at our ranch he was wearing a modified lion’s cut, but at Cliff House it’s not about being pretty, it’s all about the fiber. Momma here, with just one more post about shearing day.

Because we use a shearing table, and don’t shear off the floor, our blankets come off the alpaca in half sheets. The fleece is gathered up off the table and taken into our tack room where Kirstin does a first skirting. Anything not too dirty or too short is saved with the neck fiber (seconds) and will be used for rugs and felting.

Kirstin removes the edges of the blanket (skirt) because it contains stiff guard hairs and dirt. While she is doing this she also pulls out any second cuts from the fiber. Second cuts are small clumps of fiber left behind when the shearer makes a second pass over the alpaca’s body. My thanks to our shearing team who made shearing day 2013 a huge success. Please check our blog tomorrow for two videos from shearing day!

Posted in animals | Tagged alpaca, alpaca fiber, ranch life, shearing | 3 Comments

Shearing Day – May 15, 2013

Posted on May 17, 2013 by cliffhousemom

Where were we on Wednesday? Our apologies, Wednesday was shearing day! There are 365 days in a year, but we will tell you quite honestly, that shearing day is the only day of the year when you raise alpacas. Momma here, trying to show you just a brief glimpse of what shearing day is all about.

Just ask Kirstin, it’s all about the fiber! Tuscany was our first candidate, I have to admit to braggin’ on him for just a little bit. He was so well behaved and his fleece was so clean that I swelled with pride when Scott, our shearer, commented on his good behavior and his clean, allow me to emphasize clean, blanket.

Speaking of raising alpacas, Tripoli humbled me the minute Dad and our friend Roger attempted to walk him down the breeze way. Trip literally had to be picked up all the way to the shearing area, and then raised up onto the table.

Thanks to Roger for wrangling, Laura for her photos, Colleen for witnessing the ordeal and as always Scott and his son Connor for their gentle and caring shearing.

Posted in animals | Tagged alpaca fiber, alpacas, fiber, fleece, ranch life, shearing | 2 Comments